The present invention relates to a compensating foot or supporting foot or landing gear for a supporting device for vehicles, such as semi-trailers or the like, in which at a lower end of a telescopic or extendable supporting tube a rolling segment may be swivel-supported, which rolling segment can be rolled along on a foot plate in order to compensate an offset in the position of the vehicle.
Compensating or supporting feet for compensating a positional offset are well-known in the prior art. Such supporting devices are arranged in pairs at the front bottom-side of semi-trailers, for example, and are employed when the semi-trailer is parked separate from the truck-trailer. In the case of longer parking times, leaks in the brake and air-spring systems cause the rear part of the semi-trailer to lower and, due to the locked parking brake of the mechanical axle suspension, the vehicle or the semi-trailer, respectively, moves forward. In this situation, the supporting devices or the supports thereof, respectively, are subject to bending and buckling stresses which might cause damage to or failure of the supports. In order to be able to compensate this positional offset, supporting feet have been developed which are arranged in such a way that they can be swiveled or moved horizontally. For example, DE 40 03 414 discloses a compensating or supporting foot which comprises a swivel-supported roller segment and a foot plate, wherein the roller segment can be rolled along on the foot plate. Many times, the positional offset of the vehicle occurs not only in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, but also in the transverse direction thereof. A problem of the supporting feet from the prior art, however, is that the transverse forces are taken up via the roller segment. This leads to a great load on the swivel bearings of the roller segment, which has a negative influence on the wear and service life of the supporting feet.
Therefore, the object underlying the present invention is to provide a compensating or supporting foot for a supporting device of vehicles, such as semi-trailers or the like, by means of which the transverse forces acting on the supporting foot can be better compensated.